The poll, released yesterday by the Chinese-language United Daily News, on the Taichung mayoral election showed that support for Hu in the election is at 36 percent and Lin would have a 42 percent support rating if he were to represent the DPP in the election.

Hu would enjoy a higher support rating of 45 percent if his rival was another potential DPP candidate, DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), whose support rating was 33 percent in the poll.

Of the possible KMT candidates in the race, 29 percent said they would support Hu running for re-election and about 10 percent preferred Greater Taichung Deputy Mayor Shyu Jong-shyong (徐中雄). Support for Hu’s successor, Vice Premier Hsiao Chia-chi (蕭家淇), was less than 5 percent, according to the poll.

In the pan-green camp, 46 percent of respondents said they would support Lin in the race and 24 percent said they would support Tsai.

A KMT official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the party viewed the poll as a serious warning sign for the situation in Greater Taichung, a traditional pan-blue stronghold, and Hu should talk to the party about his decision on whether to seek re-election.

KMT Spokesman Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) said the party will spend more time finalizing its candidates in Greater Taichung and the other special municipalities as the election situations are more complicated in those electoral areas and the party will continue to communicate with potential candidates.

Hu, who served as Taichung City mayor for eight years before being elected as Greater Taichung mayor following the city’s upgrade to being a special municipality, remained tight-lipped about his re-election bid yesterday.

“The only thing I pay attention to now is city development, not elections. For me, the most important figures are the city’s general budget, not any poll results,” he said.

The poll was conducted between Dec. 19 and Dec. 22 and collected results from 1,002 Greater Taichung residents.